30 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



tailed Sparrows collected by salt water and 

 those taken near fresh water, owing, no doubt, 

 to differences of environment. The salt-water 

 birds feed on the seeds of salt grasses and occa- 

 sionally eat wild rice ; the fresh-water birds eat 

 other grasses. The salt-water birds eat many 

 sand fleas which are very abundant along the 

 beach, and the birds pick them up either on 

 the clear sand or amid the seaweed or other 

 shore debris. The fresh-water birds do not eat 

 snails, while the others seem to find them very 

 palatable. Birds collected in fresh-water marshes 

 had fed on army worms. 



Nelson's Sparrow (Passcrlicrbiilus nclsoiii 

 lu-lsoiii). also known as Nelson's Finch and as 

 Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow, is decidedly 

 smaller than the Sharp-tailed Sparrow. Its col- 



oration is much brighter, the white, ])ale grayish, 

 or [jale buffy streaks of back and shoulders more 

 sharply contrasted with the rich brown or olive 

 ground-color. It breeds in the Mississippi valley 

 northward and winters along the Gulf coast; 

 occasionally it visits the Atlantic coast during 

 migrations. (See Color Plate 8i.) 



More plainly colored than either the Sharp- 

 tailed or the Nelson's is the .\cadian Sharp-tailed 

 Sparrow { Passcrlicrbiilus iiclsoni siihvirgatns) 

 which makes its home in the salt-water marshes 

 of the Atlantic coast of the United States and 

 the adjacent Canadian provinces. The conspicu- 

 ous lighter streaks on the back and shoulders 

 are lacking in this member of the family or else 

 they are not strongly contrasted with the ground 

 color. (See Color Plate 8i.j 



SEASIDE SPARROW 

 Passerherbulus maritimus maritimus ( Wilson ) 



.\. O. V. Xiiml.cr 550 Ste Color I'late 81 



Other Names. — Meadow Chippy ; Seaside Finch. 



General Description. — Length, 6 inches. Upper 

 !)arts. oHve-grayish. streaked ; under parts, white. Bill, 

 stout: wing, short; tail, rounded, the feathers sharp- 

 pointed. 



Color. — Adults: Above, olive-grayish tinged with 

 olive especially on back, where feathers are somewhat 

 darker with light grayish edges producing streaks; 

 crown, olive laterally, grayish medially, producing three 

 broad but very indistinct and faintly contrasted stripes ; 

 a stripe on the cheek, chin, throat, and abdomen, white ; 

 strif'c under the check and broad streaks on chest, 

 grayish; edge of xving, yellozv. Young: Above, 

 browner than in adult, the back broadly and crown 



narrowly streaked with blackish; beneath, whitish; 

 the chest, sides, and flanks buffy and streaked with 

 dusky. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nkst : Placed in the areas of 

 fine marsh grass, usually beneath dead drift patches of 

 grass, above normal high-water mark {many nests 

 are destroyed every year by extra high tides) ; con- 

 structed almost entirely of dried grass, lined with 

 finer blades. Eggs : 4 or 5, pale greenish or pale 

 brownish white, finely spotted all over and wreathed 

 at large end with rufous and dull purple. 



Distribution. — Atlantic coast of United States, in 

 salt-water marshes, breeding from southern Massachu- 

 setts {Westport, near Rhode Island line) to Georgia. 



.'\s its name indicates, the .Seaside .Sparrow is 

 a land bird which, nevertheless, evidentlv loves 

 the sotmd and the sight of the ocean, for it 

 is most frequently found in the salt marshes 

 along the Atlantic coast from Rhode Island 

 southward. It often has as companions Savan- 

 nah, Sharp-tailed, Swamp, or Song Sparrows 

 from any of which it may be distinguished by 

 its lack of the reddish cast of color, more or less 

 of which is shown in their i)Iumage, and by its 

 blunt tail. Its song, of four or five notes, can 

 hardly be considered musical ; it is delivered from 

 atop a reed, or sometimes as the bird flutters a 

 few feet upward. 



There are four varieties of the Seaside Spar- 

 row found in dift'ercnt localities in the south- 

 eastern United States. Macgillivray's Seaside 

 .Sparrow ( Passcrlicrbiilus iiiaritiiiiiis macgilli- 

 vraii) is found on the Atlantic coast from South 

 Carolina to Florida and, in winter, along the 

 Gulf coast; in coloration it is darker than the 

 Seaside and its back is distinctly and often 

 broadly streaked with black. Scott's Seaside 

 Sparrow (Passcrlicrbiilus iiiariliiiiiis peninsula:') 

 is similar to Macgillivray's. but the coloration of 

 the upper parts is more uniform, the markings 

 being less sharjilv contrasted with the general 

 color; it inhabits the west coast of Florida. The 



